An elite group of U.S. and British "super-brands" continued to dominate the world's top 100 university rankings, the latest survey of senior academic opinion showed on Monday.

According to the 2013 World Reputation Rankings published by the Times Higher Education magazine, U.S.'s Harvard University is the world's top 1 institution in terms of university brands, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Oxford.

In total, the U.S. claimed 43 spots in the top 100 list, followed by Britain with nine universities listed, Australia with six, and Japan, the Netherlands and Germany each with five.

East Asian institutions made strong progress in the global index of academic prestige, although the Chinese mainland's two flagship universities, the Tsinghua University and the Peking University slipped from 30th and 38th to 35th and 45th respectively.

"China's results in the 2013 reputation rankings were a bit of a surprise." Phil Baty, editor of Times Higher Education Rankings, said in an email to Xinhua,

"We know Chinese research output has been increasing, and Chinese institutions at the very top are benefiting from huge and highly generous funding levels that Western institutions much envy," Baty said.

He suggested Chinese universities to further embrace internationalization with greater international research collaboration and networks, and greater recruitment of international faculty and students.

The annual tables, a subsidiary of the prestigious World University Rankings, are based on the largest worldwide invitation-only survey of senior academic opinion. They provide the only global index based purely on the power of university brands.